Hippo sweat
Yesterday, I took a long swim and burnt a ridiculous shade of red. I got tired of everyone at work asking me why I look like a lobster, so I thought I’ll look for sunscreens online and prevent future ridicule. Then I got sidetracked and I ended up reading about hippopotamuses (or hippopotami, whichever plural you prefer).
Their sweat acts as sunscreen, which I think is pretty convenient if you’re in the water all day long like they are. There are two very awesome chemicals in their sweat: hipposudoric acid which turns red after it’s secreted and norhipposudoric acid, which turns orange. Not only do they stop those nasty UV rays from the sun in their tracks, but they also prevent certain bacteria from growing on the hippo’s skin and repel insects.
Some scientists want to use these hippo chemicals to improve sunscreens, but I’m not too sure how I feel about that. Do I really want to put on red sunscreen? And besides, would I smell like a sweaty hippo then? I think for now I’ll stick to normal sunscreen, thank you very much.
Want to dig deeper? See if you can find the answers to these questions:
1. What other mammals sweat?
2. Why do you burn if you’re in the sun too long?
3. Why does your skin become darker after you’ve been in the sun?
Feeling creative?
Write a folk tale that explains how it happened that hippos started sweating red sweat (in the gist of how the leopard got its spots).
Practical project:
Do this experiment to see how effective sunscreen is. All you need is some dark construction paper, your hands, sunscreen and a sunny day.
https://www.playdoughtoplato.com/kids...
Febé Elizabeth Meyer
Their sweat acts as sunscreen, which I think is pretty convenient if you’re in the water all day long like they are. There are two very awesome chemicals in their sweat: hipposudoric acid which turns red after it’s secreted and norhipposudoric acid, which turns orange. Not only do they stop those nasty UV rays from the sun in their tracks, but they also prevent certain bacteria from growing on the hippo’s skin and repel insects.
Some scientists want to use these hippo chemicals to improve sunscreens, but I’m not too sure how I feel about that. Do I really want to put on red sunscreen? And besides, would I smell like a sweaty hippo then? I think for now I’ll stick to normal sunscreen, thank you very much.
Want to dig deeper? See if you can find the answers to these questions:
1. What other mammals sweat?
2. Why do you burn if you’re in the sun too long?
3. Why does your skin become darker after you’ve been in the sun?
Feeling creative?
Write a folk tale that explains how it happened that hippos started sweating red sweat (in the gist of how the leopard got its spots).
Practical project:
Do this experiment to see how effective sunscreen is. All you need is some dark construction paper, your hands, sunscreen and a sunny day.
https://www.playdoughtoplato.com/kids...
Febé Elizabeth Meyer
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You're a genius, Jeff Write! How about a volume of African folk tales?
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Long ago, before the sun became blistering, before the days of sunburn, hippopotamuses looked more like walruses. That is, in colour not in form.
These hipster-hippopotamuses did not feel special, they were so ordinary, or so they thought. They did not have tusks like the walrus or a trunk like an elephant. No long legs graced their form like it did the giraffe. They had no spots, no stripes, nor wings to fly. All they could do was float.
Now, as much as they could float, the peacock could gloat. He would strut around with his glimmering coat. He would hold his head high in the air and look down on the other animals with disdain and pride himself in his good looks. Mean-spirited as he was, he often mocked and laughed at those with a less appealing appearance, while flying overhead.
So it came that he taunted the hippo hordes, “So fat and ugly if only you could learn how to be beautiful like me.” For days he mocked and taunted and teased.
Finally, one hippo could no longer stand it, “Please, tell me how to be beautiful like you.”
Caught off guard by this request he was silent for a while, a while and a bit and a while longer. “I don’t really know how to become beautiful. I simply was beautiful since I can remember.” He thought. He cocked his head, "But if I say nothing, they may go ask somebody else who knows how to make them beautiful, then everybody will admire them and not me. This cannot be!”
Then, on his mind dawned a plan, a malicious plan. “Go to the raspberry patch in the valley of fates, roll in the berries and roll in the dirt, Sing a song and dance a dance. Go lie in the sun for days numbered five. Go take a bath and when you come out, your feathers will sprout.”
This the hippo and all his hippo friends did. They Rolled in the berries and they rolled in the dirt, they sang a song, another just in case, they danced all day long till their feet were so sore, they went to the water after five days in the sun. When they came out they were not covered in feathers, they were covered in red.
Angry they marched to the Peacock. He laughed and he laughed until his head started to spin, he fell from the tree and landed in the dirt. The furious hippos ran other him, they trampled his wings and they walked on his tail.
And that is why, even to today: the peacock can’t fly high anymore and why the hippo is still angry and red.